By: Ali Sajid Lashari
Ever since the revolution took place and Iran kicked off exporting this Irani brand of revolution beyond its own boundaries, all the neighboring states are inflicted by worry because of its burgeoning influence in the gulf. As a matter of fact , especially Saudi accounts Iran as a mortal threat for itself. This piece is aimed at bringing all fat factors apropos of Saudi arabia’s concerns athwart Iran under limelight.On fractional fundamentalism, Saudi is a sunni ultra-orthodox wahabist and dub itself supreme power of Muslim globe. On the contrary, Iran is shia state. Very interestingly, Saudi has Shiite minority in its eastern province . And, their inspiration is purely Iran, they follow the footsteps of their inspiration(Iran). This Shiite populated part has scores of oil-wells . this,too, is cause of concern for monarchy that they might occupy wells, secekingdom, and declare autonomy with their assistance of neighboring antagonist state. Therefore, the defacto leader MBS has put scades of restriction on their religious and political relies and procession . they are not free to practice their religious rituals alfresco.Woefully , number of members of shia minority are behind bars due to participating in protest since 2011 calling for full equality and basic rights for all Saudis. Many female activists have also been prisoned . while many others have been given death sentence without any fair trial. Rather, they sought to execute them on charges like incitement to protest and chanting slogans hostile to the regime.Further to add, the Islamic republic of Iran is moving heavens and earths to develop the technology at least build nukes. Iran stated that it had chemical weapons , although it had not reported its holding as a part of CWC, it renewed the nuclear weapons program initiated under shah in the 1980s as a result of the iran-iraq war and probably would have been ready to test a fission nuclear weapon in 2018-2019 if it had not inked a nuclear arms agreement called JCPOA on July 14, 2015 that went into effect on October 15th. This implementation of this agreement seems to have halted Iran’s near-term efforts to acquire fissile material and nuclear weapons , but Iran remains at , or near, the nuclear break out stage . apart from, it has earned heartfelt kudos from the world in cyberwarfare muscle. Attacks executed by Iranian cyber circle, rocket kitten , on saudi’s oil facilities are ample proofs . but , unfortunately, Saudi Arabia has no nuclear reactors plus cyberwarfare capability as of yet and no near term options for matching Iran’s technological progress.Additionally, there is no blinking at fact that Iran’s manpower is more potent than kingdom’s. Iranian military is well-equiped and well-trained.Last but not least, IRGC(Islamic revolution guard crop) is another great menace which Saudi rulers consider to. This Irani crop was set up some four decades ago for defence of the country’s Islamic system as well as to provide equivalent force to the regular armed forces. Since then, it has become major military, political and economic force in the country, with close ties to the supereminent leader , ayatullah Ali khamenei,and many other senior personages. Moreover, the IRGC is estimated to have more than 190,000 active personnels , boasts its own ground force , navy, and air force that oversees strategic weapons. It has also powerful presence in country’s civilian institutions.It is also active in housing development, dam and road construction, oil and gas projects, food transportation and even educational cultural activities. The khatam-ol-Anbia ( seal of the Prophet) its engineering wing , is reported have tens of thousands of employees and has been awarded billions of dollars of construction and engineering contracts. This Irani designed force is not only engaged at home but also, via Quds force, has cultivated Shiite militias in Iraq , Syria, and Afghanistan , while supporting groups such as Hezbollah in labonon and Hamas in Ghaza strip. To cap it all, to cope with this far mighty antagonist, prince Mohammad bin salman has done reforms in military structure and buying modern weapons of mass destruction from allies to build up military muscles . Arm deal of eight billion dollars of military equipments with bossom friend America is one of them and historical. It includes some of the world’s most sophisticated warfare aircrafts, precision-guided bombs , advanced f-15 fighter jets and laser-guided missiles.There is also about $1 million of small arms , such as semi-automatic rifles.This very deal involves a coproduction provision too that allows Raytheon, a top U.S weapons manufacturer, to team up with saudi Arabia and build high-tech bomb parts , potentially sharing technology.
